Latest news from Soylentnews.org - Technology feed

Phoenix666 writes:To use DelivAir, clients would start by requesting a delivery via a smartphone app. Possible scenarios could include a hiker in need of a first aid kit, a stranded cyclist needing a spare inner tube, or even a remotely-located person requiring life-saving equipment such as an EpiPen or defibrillator.At a store, depot, or other location, the required item would then be loaded onto a drone, which would autonomously fly out to the client's smartphone GPS coordinates. Using…

Phoenix666 writes:What do you get when you cross a plane with a blimp? A Plimp. That's not a joke, it's what the thing is actually called. Manufactured by Seattle-based Egan Airships, the 28-ft (8.5-m) unmanned aircraft has a helium-filled envelope allowing for blimp-like buoyancy, while its winged rigid body allows it to travel quick-ish like a conventional drone.When the Plimp is taking off and landing – or just hovering on the spot – its two wings rotate so that the electric mot…

martyb writes:Nearly two months ago, we received notice from Linode (which hosts the servers for SoylentNews) that they would be migrating our servers to a new data center in Dallas, TX. Our systems would gradually be scheduled for migration. We could either accept their scheduled date/time or trigger a manual migration. In theory, this should be a no-worry activity as we have redundancy on almost all of our servers and processes. But in practice, that is not always the case. Rather than…

Phoenix666 writes:This biotech startup uses methane-eating bacteria to create fully biodegradable polymers.Mango Materials is a biotech startup from San Francisco that has come up with an ingenious method for transforming methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into plastic. The process involves feeding methane to bacteria, which then produce a biodegradable polymer (polyhydroxyalkanoate, or PHA). This polymer can be spun into polyester fabric and used for clothing, carpets, and possibly…

AnonTechie writes:The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, as the Norwegian Nobel Committee warned that the risk of a nuclear conflict is greater than for a long time.ICAN describes itself as a coalition of grassroots non-government groups in more than 100 nations. It began in Australia and was officially launched in Vienna in…

Phoenix666 writes:Copenhagen prosecutor Jakob Buch-Jepsen announced in a court hearing Wednesday that "images" of the torture, decapitation, and burning of a woman were found on a computer hard drive at RML Spacelab, the organization devoted to building a manned suborbital rocket led by Danish aerospace engineer Peter Madsen. The BBC reports that the images, "which we presume to be real," said Buch-Jepsen, were on a computer believed to belong to Madsen—the suspect in the death of j…

Phoenix666 writes:"The biggest challenges with stem cells are gathering enough of them to work with and keeping them viable until they are needed," Dr. Mah said.He and UNLV biomedical sciences professor Karl Kingsley—along with a handful of undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral dental students—decided to take on this challenge, cutting their teeth in stem cell research by exploring those pearly whites in new ways. In the process, they developed a new method for extracting large numbers …

Phoenix666 writes:Way to go, New York City! All 1,200 schools in the New York City public school district will now offer a vegan hummus option every day at the beginning of this school year, thanks to The Coalition for Healthy School Food (CHSF), a non-profit that helps introduce plant-based foods into schools. Vegan options for students that are available on the school’s vegetarian menu will range from Mexicali Chili, Lentil Stew, Lentil Sloppy Joes, Braised Black Beans with Plantains, a…

takyon writes:Tabby's star, aka KIC 8462852, is likely surrounded by orbiting dust grains that block ultraviolet light:The bizarre long-term dimming of Tabby's star—also known as Boyajian's star, or, more formally, KIC 8462852—is likely caused by dust, not a giant network of solar panels or any other "megastructure" built by advanced aliens, a new study suggests.Astronomers came to this conclusion after noticing that this dimming was more pronounced in ultraviolet (UV) than infrared light. …

Phoenix666 writes:"It was known that green tea polyphenols are more effective and offer more health benefits than black tea polyphenols since green tea chemicals are absorbed into the blood and tissue," said Susanne Henning, the study's lead author and an adjunct professor at the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition. "Our new findings suggest that black tea, through a specific mechanism through the gut microbiome, may also contribute to good health and weight loss in humans."That specific…

Phoenix666 writes:the Good Housekeeping Institute's recent publication of a dishwashing guide for all those young people (2 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds in the UK) who have never learned the ancient art of washing up. In a nutshell, use hot water and rubber gloves, pre-scrape and soak dirty pans, change your water halfway through, and wash in the following order: glasses, mugs, cups, saucers, side plates, dinner plates, cutlery, serving dishes, pans, roasting tins.While not knowing how…

Phoenix666 writes:Scientists have developed a novel weapon in the battle against deadly hospital-acquired infections - a textile that disinfects itself.And independent tests show it can reduce bacteria levels by more than 90 per cent.By incorporating the specially-engineered textile in a device designed to be used on hospital doors instead of the traditional aluminium door plate, that part of the door that people push to open it - they aim to bolster hand hygiene.The self-disinfecting…

takyon writes:Mattel will not sell an all-in-one voice-controlled smart hub / baby monitor, setting back the state of parenting by decades or even millennia:Toymaker Mattel has shelved plans to build an "all-in-one voice-controlled smart baby monitor," after complaints about the device were raised by privacy advocates and child psychologists. According to a report from The Washington Post, the company said in a statement that the device, named Aristotle, did not "fully align with Mattel's…

Phoenix666 writes:More than 40 Catholic institutions are to announce the largest ever faith-based divestment from fossil fuels, on the anniversary of the death of St Francis of Assisi.The sum involved has not been disclosed but the volume of divesting groups is four times higher than a previous church record, and adds to a global divestment movement, led by investors worth $5.5tn.[...] Assisi's mayor, Stefania Proietti – a former climate mitigation professor – told the Guardian: "When we pa…

martyb writes:There is a story up on medium.com by Rob Malda (aka CmdrTaco) reflecting on Slashdot's start twenty years ago, on October 5th, 1997. For those who may be new here, the code driving this site you are reading is based on an old version of slashcode. If it weren't for Rob's efforts starting way back then, there would be no SoylentNews today.Within a few days of DNS registration, Slashdot.org was live. I quickly added polls to answer urgent questions like "How many shots should…

takyon writes:According to unverifiable sources, an NSA contractor stored classified data and hacking tools on his home computer, which were made available to Russian hackers through the contractor's use of Kaspersky Lab anti-virus software:Russian government-backed hackers stole highly classified U.S. cyber secrets in 2015 from the National Security Agency after a contractor put information on his home computer, two newspapers reported on Thursday.As reported first by The Wall Street…